


The Future's Open Wide

by lovethatwewerein



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29899824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovethatwewerein/pseuds/lovethatwewerein
Summary: He’s always had this bad habit of getting too invested in people he no longer talks to, in the desperate need to know something about their lives. It doesn’t matter why they stopped getting along, whether it was a fight or they just drifted apart - a part of him needs to know where the people he once knew are at in life. It’s why he has Elliot on his facebook still, why he has Wes’s ex-girlfriend’s snapchat. It’s why he never bothered to unfollow Sebastian on Instagram despite deleting every other record of him from his life.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe
Comments: 9
Kudos: 54





	The Future's Open Wide

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'I'll melt with you' by Modern English.

He’s always had this bad habit of getting too invested in people he no longer talks to, in the desperate need to know something about their lives. It doesn’t matter why they stopped getting along, whether it was a fight or they just drifted apart - a part of him needs to know where the people he once knew are at in life. It’s why he has Elliot on his facebook still, why he has Wes’s ex-girlfriend’s snapchat. It’s why he never bothered to unfollow Sebastian on Instagram despite deleting every other record of him from his life. 

So he does keep track of certain parts of Sebastian’s life over the next couple of years. Random photos of his days passing by at Yale, of a boyfriend that disappears after a few months, of parties and studying and growing up. And that’s all there is to it, a curiosity over an old friend sated because he doesn’t care. Not really.

He doesn’t notice when half of the photos are deleted. Doesn’t. 

*

“Every day this week Santana has posted a bikini picture,” Tina mutters to him as they step into the queue. It’s the first chance they’ve had to meet up in months, a long weekend Tina’s managed to find the time to visit for, and he’s glad to have her around. “And, yes, her body is beautiful but she could at least consider that some of us are stuck in New York and not on a beach holiday.” 

“You’re beautiful too, Tina.” There’s a table with two chairs by the far window that he wants to save before they have to battle the rain again. “Do you want to go save those seats for us? I’ll get the drinks.” 

“I would never turn down a coffee from you, Blaine Anderson.” 

She reaches the table just as another couple does and there’s this split second where he doesn’t know what’s going to happen. He loves Tina - she’s sweet and normally very caring - but it’s cold outside and they’re both tired from walking around all afternoon so he worries for a moment just how badly this interaction could go. 

“Next,” the barista, Elaine, calls as the couple Tina’s glaring at retreat, leaving her to hang her scarf on the back of her chair, tugging her coat off quickly. “What can I get you?” 

He thinks that it might be a glimpse of Santana’s instagram that he sees when he passes one coffee to Tina and he does get it, this mixture of jealousy and resignation that Tina has going on whenever she looks at the photos. It’s the same feeling he gets when Kurt posts a picture with his new boyfriend, or hints at getting a role before Blaine’s managed to get noticed outside of NYU. 

He doesn’t mind that Kurt’s moved on. He’s happy for him, even. A part of him just wishes the break-up had been less dramatic, less painful and more reasonable. Even if he tried, he couldn’t guess what they’re breaking point had been. And he wasn’t about to ask Kurt. 

“I’m thinking of going on a road trip at some point after graduating,” he tells Tina, tugging his phone out of his bag to show her a video Cooper took the last time Cooper visited where he’d made a dramatic speech about all the places he wanted to see. It had been irritating at the time but, with how their relationship is beginning to mend, maybe this can be a chance to bond for definite. He’s pretty sure it’s on his brother’s instagram.

Except, he’s not quick enough to the search tool or his following list. His home feed refreshes and he’s confronted with a shirtless Sebastian. He may be used to the random people on his timeline showing up, posing however they please to catch people’s eyes but they’re strangers. Or Sam. 

They aren’t Sebastian. But this is. This is lean muscle and defined abs and Blaine can’t say he hasn’t pictured it before. In the past. A long time ago. He was seventeen and a mess and, yes, maybe it wasn’t the smartest choice to think about someone that wasn’t his boyfriend in that way but he couldn’t control who he was attracted to. Even with that, with a dozen nights spent wondering he had nothing to go off. 

But now he does and it’s

a lot. 

“Blaine?” Tina snaps her fingers in front of his eyes, drawing his attention back to her. “Why did you go dumbstruck like that? Was it another Adam Levine picture?” 

Heat crawls up the back of his neck, guaranteed to stretch across his cheeks to the tops of his ears within the next minute. He considers lying but what would be the point. Tina knows him. She won’t buy it. “No. No, it was… it was a photo of Sebastian actually.” 

“You still have Sebastian on instagram?” 

“You know what I’m like,” he tries to defend himself, glancing back down at his locked screen. “I can be nosy when I want to be.” 

She tilts her head in acceptance and he can see it, the second her eyes light up. He braces himself. “You have to show me now, you know that right?” 

“Why?” 

“I have to make a judgement for myself. See if it was worth losing your attention over.” 

“It’s not any-” 

“Nope.” She reaches her hand across the table. “Show me the phone, Blaine Devon.” 

He pouts, unlocking it before placing the phone in her palm. She smiles. It’s almost like there’s a million words flicking across her face as she looks at the photo, this vague mix of interest, distrust and good old attraction that he’s not surprised at. Tina may dislike Sebastian still but she’s not blind. And she’s mellowed out over the years. 

“Not bad,” she says, handing the phone back to him with the screen faced up. He almost doesn’t want to look at it again, scared he’ll have a heart attack or something in the middle of a coffee shop. That’ll be a great thing for Tina to write in his eulogy - _Death by Shirtless Picture._

In the end, he does look back at the screen, just before it fades to black and his heart almost beats out of his chest. “What did you do?” 

His best friend shrugs, drinking her coffee like she hasn’t just destroyed years of pretending that he wasn’t attracted to Sebastian. “You need to get back out there and, like everyone always says, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.” 

“Why’d you have to like the photo? You couldn’t just like someone’s comment?” 

“But then he wouldn’t know.” 

“Exactly,” he whispers, focusing his gaze solely on the little pink heart underneath the picture. He’s never been shy, per se, but this is something else entirely. This is taking a step out of his comfort zone, the present, and going back to the past and stepping forward into the future. All at the same time. It’s enough to make his head spin. 

“Either it’ll work out or it doesn’t,” she eventually says to him, standing to throw her empty cup in the bin when he finally places his phone down again. “Better to try and fail than to not try at all.” 

His phone buzzes and he’s almost certain it’s Sam or Rachel. It’s not and he was a fool for thinking otherwise. Clear as day, the message is there. 

_Smythe_S: I finally got your attention, killer._

His hand shakes as he goes to click on the notification. A second one joins it.

_Smythe_S: Guess it’s my lucky day._

He doesn’t even notice Tina return, too lost in the reality of this actually happening. She glances at the screen before chuckling. “I knew I was right about him. I’m gonna go visit Rachel. You should deal with that yourself. Good luck.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm at [lovethatwewerein](https://love-that-we-were-in.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. Feel free to reach out or even send prompts <3


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